In a fast-changing world, it’s important to learn from success stories such as Airbnb. Similar changes could be coming to your industry…soon.

I spent Easter ‘up the coast’ with my family. We booked last minute. My parents had literally just arrived from the UK, and when nwe got to our destination, our apartment was dirty, dusty and dated. Some furniture was broken and the ceiling leaked when it rained. Fortunately, the ocean view was five star. We completed our customer feedback form as requested. The managers shouted. They said it wasn’t their fault if the individual unit owners refused to carry out necessary repairs.

You may have seen the infographic circulating around LinkedIn quoting Tom Goodwin of Havas Media, who said “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.”

The hotel industry didn’t see Airbnb coming. Their entire industry was blindsided. Platforms like Airbnb have restructured the traditional operating model for the tourism accommodation industry. They’ve redefined value, allowing anyone with a spare bed to run their own bed and breakfast. They’ve redefined quality control, relying on peer curation to decide what’s worthy (and what’s to be avoided) and they’ve redefined behaviours creating a new perspective on what accounts for a traditional holiday trip.

New South Wales Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance has called on the world’s brightest tech minds to find the next big idea that would shake up transport in NSW. In an Australian first, the NSW Government will host ‘Future Transport’ a 12-month program to uncover the trends and technologies that will revolutionise the way the government and customers plan, build and use transport.

I believe that right now there are five important actions for transport professionals.

1. Let’s pay attention to what’s emerging

A few weeks ago, entrepreneur and online personality Gary Vaynerchuk was in Sydney. He said we all need to look at macro trends and pay attention to what’s emerging all around us. Vaynerchuk ‘trades on attention’ to create his success. He’s a master at figuring out where people are putting their attention right now and, more importantly, where our attention is likely to move to be in the next 12 months.